How to Adjust Letter Spacing in Photoshop

The Short Answer

Photoshop controls letter spacing in the Character panel, which you open from Window > Character. To change spacing evenly across a word or line, select the text and change the Tracking value. To change the gap between one specific pair of letters, place the text cursor between them and change the Kerning value. Positive numbers open the spacing and negative numbers tighten it. Photoshop measures both settings in thousandths of an em. An em is a unit equal to the current font size, so the spacing stays proportional when you resize the type.

Tracking and kerning are separate controls. Tracking adds or removes the same amount of space between every character in a selection. Kerning changes the space between two adjacent characters only. Logo wordmarks usually need both. Tracking sets the overall rhythm, and kerning fixes awkward pairs such as A next to V, or T next to o.

Before You Start

• Keep the text as a live type layer. In the Layers panel it shows a T thumbnail. Rasterized text is made of pixels and cannot be tracked or kerned.
• Make sure the font is installed and active. If Photoshop has substituted a missing font, the spacing you set will not match the intended typeface.
• Confirm that your font license covers logo use. A font file being installed on your computer does not grant that permission.
• Work on a duplicate of the type layer if you want to compare your result with the original spacing.

Menu names and panel layouts can change between Photoshop releases. The commands below describe the long-standing Character panel workflow. Check the menu labels against your installed version if anything looks different.

Step-by-Step: Adjust Tracking

• 1. Open the Character panel with Window > Character.
• 2. Choose the scope of the change. To apply tracking to an entire type layer, select that layer in the Layers panel without entering text-editing mode. To apply it to part of the text, select the Horizontal Type tool and highlight the characters you want to change.
• 3. In the Character panel, find the Tracking field. It is labeled with the letters VA and a horizontal arrow beneath them.
• 4. Type a value or choose one from the dropdown. Use negative values to tighten the spacing and positive values to loosen it. You can also scrub the setting by dragging across the field's icon.
• 5. As a keyboard alternative, with text selected, hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and press the Left or Right Arrow key to decrease or increase the spacing step by step.
• 6. Commit the edit by clicking the checkmark in the Options bar or pressing Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmd+Return (macOS).

Step-by-Step: Adjust Kerning Between Letter Pairs

• 1. With the Horizontal Type tool, click to place the insertion point between the two characters you want to adjust. Do not highlight any characters.
• 2. In the Character panel, find the Kerning field. It is the VA field without the arrow beneath it.
• 3. Choose a starting method. Metrics uses the kerning pairs built into the font. Optical lets Photoshop calculate spacing from the shapes of the letters. 0 turns kerning off.
• 4. For manual control, enter a number, or hold Alt or Option and press the Left or Right Arrow key.
• 5. Move to the next pair and repeat. Commit the edit when you are finished.

Metrics kerning depends on the pair data the type designer built into the font, so its quality varies from font to font. Optical kerning can work better with fonts that have weak pair data, or when you combine different fonts in one line. Which starting point works better is a design judgment, not a fixed rule. Compare both before you start making manual adjustments.

Spacing Decisions for Logo Wordmarks

The following points are common design recommendations, not documented requirements. Text set in all capitals often looks crowded at default spacing, and many designers add some positive tracking to compensate. Large display sizes tend to show loose default spacing more clearly, so slightly tighter tracking is common there. Judge the spacing visually rather than numerically. Aim for gaps that look even, even if their measurements differ. Round letters such as O usually need to sit closer to their neighbors than straight-sided letters such as H to look evenly spaced.

Because tracking and kerning scale with font size, a value that works on a large headline may not suit a small favicon or a printed business card. If the logo will appear at very different sizes, consider whether a separate small-size version with looser spacing is warranted.

How to Confirm the Result

• Click into the adjusted text and check that the Character panel shows the tracking and kerning values you intended. A highlighted selection with mixed values shows an empty field.
• View the artwork at 100% zoom, then zoom out to roughly the smallest size the logo will appear. Gaps that look even when zoomed in can look uneven when small.
• Flip the canvas horizontally or turn the text upside down on a duplicate layer. This shows the shapes without the words, which makes uneven gaps easier to spot.
• Confirm that the layer still shows the T thumbnail, which means the text is still live and editable.
• If you have a print proof or a target screen, check the spacing there as well, not only on your working monitor.

Preparing the Spaced Type for Delivery

Photoshop is mainly a raster editor, meaning it builds images from pixels. A type layer remains vector-based while it is live, but many export formats flatten it to pixels. How you finish the file decides whether your spacing survives as scalable vector artwork or as a fixed-resolution image.

• To lock in the spacing as vector outlines, duplicate the type layer, then right-click the copy and choose Convert to Shape (also available under the Type menu). The letters become editable vector shapes, and the result no longer depends on the font being installed. Keep the original live type layer, hidden, so you can still change the spacing later.
• To keep vector data in a shareable file, save as a Photoshop PDF and leave the vector data intact. Check the result by zooming in on the PDF and confirming the edges stay sharp.
• For web or screen raster use, Export As PNG produces pixel artwork. Export at the pixel dimensions you need, because enlarging a PNG later will soften the letter edges.
• Avoid Rasterize Type unless the spacing is final and you have kept an editable copy. Rasterizing cannot be undone once the file is saved and closed.

A file extension alone does not prove that the file contains vector artwork. A PDF can hold only a flattened image, for example. Check the content itself, and do not treat a delivered file as permission to modify or reuse someone else's logo. If the logo needs extensive vector editing or SVG delivery, a dedicated vector application is usually the better final destination. Export options for SVG have changed across Photoshop versions, so check what your version supports before you rely on it.

Evidence Gaps

No version-specific documentation was supplied for this guide, so it gives no exact keyboard increments, default values or release-specific menu changes. It also offers no recommended tracking numbers for particular typefaces, because suitable values depend on the font, the letter case and the size at which the logo is used.